WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose last week but layoffs remain historically low despite ongoing economic uncertainty brought on by the war in Iran.
U.S. applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 30 increased by 13,000 to 225,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's more than the 211,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast, but still a historically low level.
Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, rose by 6,500 to 214,750.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending May 23 fell by 8,000 to 1.78 million, in line with analyst forecasts.
